Mutant in Me
by Brin
Summary: XMenDark Angel Crossover: When one of Logan's contacts turns up an interesting assignment for Max and Alec, they find themselves in the strangest ride of their life. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I don't own an of the characters here that appear in the hit syndicated TV Sci-Fi series, _Dark Angel_ or the classic comic book series, _X Men_. I do, however, own any and all original characters that appear here.

Summary: X Men THE MOVIE/Dark Angel crossover. When the X Men and the Brotherhood run into Max and Co, interesting things happen.

Time frame: AU. Post Gill Girl.

**Mutant in Me**

"Along with behavior control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers." - Lewis Thomas (1913 - 1993)

* * *

Max wasn't sure what exactly she was looking at, so she blinked several times as if it would clear her vision of the absurd image. But no – there it was, some awful porno picture or something along those lines… and why the hell was Logan showing it to her? "Logan, it's a naked woman painted blue."

"I'm aware, Max, but Matt Sung said this is important. She's suspected of assassinating a city official," explained Logan exasperatedly. "Remember that knife incident with Councilman Andrews last week?"

"You're saying… a blue naked woman is behind the slicing and dicing of a city bureaucrat? And why do we care anyway, Logan? This is, like, scumbag number three hundred seventy-five we don't have to worry about anymore," answered Max indifferently as she studied her nails, which were looking rather ragged after her last few jobs, and nibbled on one of them.

A frustrated expression appeared on Logan's face (as opposed to his chest, or something…) and he replied, "Max, this is serious. We don't know what this woman is or who she's working for or how she managed to get a hit on one of the most security-obsessed men in Seattle!"

"Well you see that's easy, Logan," said Max as she coolly sat on an empty space on his desk. "She's a naked blue woman. She works for the naked blue people of Insane-o-land, and she got the hit on him because she's naked and painted blue. It's quite simple, Logan. And will you take that picture down? It's really annoying."

Logan did as he was told, removing his glasses, and proceeded to massage his eyes with his palms. "Look, Max, whether you want to or not, I need you to check this out for me."

"I'm not going to play up to your sick fantasy of a naked blue woman, Logan."

"Will you stop saying it like that!"

Max sighed and hopped off of the desk. "Okay, okay. You want me to go chase after naked blue lady, a-chasing I will go. Just give me a sector, some money, and enough cherry bubblegum to last three days."

Sighing, Logan leaned back in his chair. "There's money in the sugar jar on the counter and gum in the drawer by the fridge."

"Been there, done that. Good to know you were thinking of me, but a genetically trained burglar always knows where to keep the goods," replied Max, blowing a bubble pointedly. She grinned a very feline grin and headed towards the door, calling over her shoulder, "And while I'm at it, I'll be careful."

* * *

"I know we run errands and go buy Logan his Hamburger Helper dinners and everything, but don't you think this is a bit extreme?" asked Alec as he bit into his three-dollar heart attack on a bun, otherwise known as a hot dog with _all_ the trimmings—chili, cheese, onions, mustard, relish, etc.

Max wrinkled her nose at him. "That's disgusting. You'd think that with the billions of dollars they put into us, you wouldn't pollute yourself with—"

"Focus," replied Alec with a furtive grin, his eyebrows wiggling. "Tell me about the naked blue lady. I've seen one or two in my time, but they tend to be on a different career track than high profile assassin."

"Very funny." Max thwacked him on the head, causing him to choke on a large bite of his hot dog. "Okay, so, basically, a few of Logan contacts turned up information on this terrorist group called The Brotherhood. They've been involved in some pretty heavy terrorism acts on the East Coast, but have moved to the West Coast only recently. An anonymous tip came in that this… naked blue lady is a key operative."

"Did it ever occur to Logan that this could be one big hoax and we're on a naked blue goose chase?" asked Alec calmly. He offered her a bite of his lunch, still grinning as if he owned the world.

Relenting, Max took a good-sized bite.

"Ah, look. The great Max Guevara just put my wiener in her mouth."

* * *

Alec rubbed his cheek gingerly. His arm and ribs were beginning to bruise as well. Damn that Max and her temper. Didn't she have the slightest sense of humor? He cast a sidelong glance at his investigation partner, making sure that she knew he was bitter about being punched, kicked, and stomped on like that. The nerve of that woman. "You know, Max, you could've talked out your anger like a civilized person."

"Well that's the thing, Alec. I've never really considered myself a completely civilized person," replied Max unperturbedly as they carefully rolled through the Seattle traffic, flashing their Jam Pony IDs when it was necessary. They were on their way to the address of the anon-tipper (as Alec liked to put it). Max knew they could be walking into a trap, but she also knew that nothing short of a second Pulse could throw her off-balance these days. After surviving a shot to the heart, escaping Manticore again, destroying it, having a virus genetically engineered to kill Logan, meeting her bionic Big Brother, and saving a mermaid… she considered herself a very infallible person… save for the incident with Alec and his wiener. But that didn't count.

"That's funny, Max, because I always thought you were little miss 'I've been out for ten years, I know all about modern civilization so I automatically get to make all the big decisions and have a rich boyfriend'." Alec skidded to a stop as two little punks scootered across the street, flipping the world the bird, terrorizing the neighborhood at age eleven. More power to them, as far as Alec was concerned. Some people's kids.

"Sticks and stones, Alec."

"You want me to go find some for you?"

Max shoved him on the shoulder, causing his bike to veer off course and straight into the back of a busted car. He flew over the handlebars like a rag doll and landed in a pile of trash bags full of rotten vegetables. The expression on his face a mixture of anger and defeat, he stood and brushed a putrid onion from his shoulder and moldy tomato peel from his hair. He looked at Max and took several deep, calming breaths to drive away that nagging urge to pull her right into the mush of month-old veggie stew with him. "I bet you enjoyed that," he said simply.

"Oh, very much so," she replied, smiling from ear to ear liked a pleased cat (despite the fact that it is highly improbably that a cat is capable of smiling, though that is neither here nor there).

They didn't speak a word to each other the rest of the ride, and when they did finally speak, it was to confirm the location of the anon-tipper's house. Silently, they ascended the broken, decaying steps to the broken, decaying front door. The building was in equal condition. Max double-checked the address before lightly knocking on the door and announcing, "Jam Pony messenger."

A camera appeared out of a slit in the wall and looked them up and down before retracting into its hiding space. Soon after, a voice came over a hidden speaker: "Come in." It was deep and smooth, aged to perfection one might say.

Tentatively, the two transgenics entered the building, eyes automatically scoping the place. A back door that led to a tiny, empty backyard. Most of the windows were large enough for one to jump out if trouble arose, but the slightest miscalculation would cause a collision into the frame for either shoulder. It looked innocent enough, but so did most things that went wrong in Max's life.

Max started in surprise as Alec suddenly began to walk forward. "Alec! Alec, hey! Where are you going?" she whispered furiously, grabbing onto his arm. He didn't miss a beat, continuing up the stairs and to the right. Straight through a door, and they stood in a minuscule library.

Abruptly, Alec seemed to come to his senses. He looked around in confusion. "What just happened?"

Simultaneously, they turned their attention to the middle of a room. There sat a classically handsome man in his mid sixties, bald head shining in the light from the window and his face perfectly symmetrical. He wore an expensive, pressed Armani suit with a starched white shirt and red tie.

"Ah, you must be Max and Alec," he said; the same voice that had spoken over the com at the door.

The transgenics exchanged hesitant glances, then Max spoke: "Who are you?"

"My name is Professor Charles Xavier, but most prefer to simply call me Professor," answered the old man, though he spoke as if he'd favor to be referred to as an "elderly chap".

"Well what do you want with us?" asked Alec cautiously, his body mechanically easing into a fighting position—which included slipping his body slightly in front of Max's. Noticing this, Max shifted a shoulder in front of him. They looked at each other doubtfully.

The professor smiled at them, his noticeably large cranium bobbing up and down with amusement like some life-sized bobble head. He raised a hand, which caused both Alec and Max to snap to attention, and offered, "Would you like something to drink?"

Max and Alec whirled around in surprise as a young girl literally materialized next to them, right out of the wall. Alec's hand came to rest on the small of Max's back as they shifted their positions to accommodate a defensive position against both potential threats in the room. She subtly but pointedly shrugged off the offending appendage and frowned at the sound of his apologetic grunt.

"Please, relax. Kitty here has some unique talents. You two, with your remarkable background, might find her very intriguing indeed," explained Professor X, still with that knowing grin on his symmetrical face.

"Okay, okay, enough with the Matrix blue-pill-yellow-pill shit! I don't care who you are, who you're working for, or why the hell you know about the naked blue lady running around, but I've had enough, Morpheus. Let's go, Max," said Alec, tugging on the sleeve of her leather jacket and ignoring the ghost-like girl named Kitty, who was looking at him with goo-goo eyes.

Max didn't move. She was staring into the space above Xavier's head, a faraway look in her wide eyes.

"Max…? Max. Hello, Earth to Max," chanted Alec, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Your friend is currently under my control," replied Max calmly, her tone and inflection different than usual. In fact, her tone and inflection were strangely similar to Professor X's.

Alec's head turned the professor with an almost audible creak. "What the hell are you?" he asked, suddenly losing all sarcasm.

"Well, given the times, there are many phrases to describe what I am. Some use the term 'freak' or 'monster'. Others, like yourself, would prefer the term 'genetically empowered'. I, however, choose to refer to myself and my kind as 'mutant'."

Silence settled over the room. Every possible response—sarcastic or not—died on the lips of the two transgenics (Max having come back into possession of her mind long enough to hear Xavier's speech). So, instead of straining themselves into trying to think of a response, they simply stared and waited for the professor to explain further. He didn't look like any Manticoree they had ever encountered, and there was no way Manticore could've existed at the time of his birth.

Xavier allowed the deafening silence to continue for an ample amount of time, then spoke, "You may have some questions about this."

"Uh, yeah, I'd say that," snapped Max.

"I guessed as much," replied the professor calmly. "As you know, I am Professor Charles Xavier. I own a institution for… _gifted_ children. Mutants, like myself. We have powers beyond what you… transgenics could ever imagine."

"Why do you say it like that?" asked Alec curtly.

"A term has been coined for you Manticorees among my kind. It's meant to be a slur, though you may not feel the bite that the expression intends." A pause. "The name most of my students use for transgenics is 'synthetigen'. Though we are both fighting the same war—fighting for acceptance, trying to live a normal life—most younger mutants feel that transgenics have gotten the easy way out. Their feelings are… hostile, to say the least."

"Will you get to the point already?" demanded Alec. This was not turning out good. He was back in his defensive stance toward the old man. The young girl had vanished through the wall again. "Why us? What do you want?"

"I need to ask a favor of you two."

"What's that?"

Xavier grinned charmingly. "You see, it's really not a major concern of mine, otherwise I'd have my team of more advanced mutants do it… but they're currently busy keeping a man by the name of Graydon Creed busy… and I'd hate to bother them. What I need you to do is protect a woman on the list for assassination by the mutant Magneto and his subordinates, their names being Mystique, Sabertooth, and Toad."

Alec scoffed. "Sabertooth? What kind of person goes around calling themselves Sabertooth?"

"Incredulity is understandable, Mr. Brady," said Xavier calmly. "But Mystique you should recognize. I reported her to my contact, Eyes Only."

"The blue naked woman?" asked Max.

"Yes, Mystique could be described as that. She's a shape shifter, you see. It will be very hard to identify her, and because of that, she is most always the one who carries out Magneto's execution whims." Xavier took a deep breath. "She is very, very dangerous."

"Well then how are we supposed to stop her?" queried Alec ardently. He was starting to get into this; it sounded like fun.

"By smell," answered Xavier forthrightly.

"Smell?" Max stared at him like he was insane. "We aren't freaking bloodhounds, buster, so I have no idea where you came up with that."

"Don't even try to cop out of this one, young lady," said the Professor, his face clenching in a frown. "And quite frankly, I'm getting rather annoyed with your blatant disregard of my proposition."

"A proposition? What proposition?" Alec's ears perked up.

"I am willing to pay a hefty price for the protection of the targeted victim." Xavier handed them a piece of paper.

Max's eyes widened at the five-zeroed number.

"We'll do it," she and Alec said concurrently.

* * *

Piotr Rasputin stared at the two transgenics as Professor X introduced them. One was tall, with sandy blondish hair. He wore a black leather jacket, blue jeans, and a red shirt. The other, a woman, was thin but shapely, her gangly arms hanging stiffly at her sides. She was clothed in a black t-shirt and black jeans, with bike gloves on her hands.

"Piotr, this is Alec Brady and Max Guevara. They're here to help us."

Alec gulped, his Adam's Apple bobbing, as he looked at the daunting adolescent. He was about seven feet tall with arms like tree trunks and a barreled chest. Even wearing a black leather blazer, a collared blue shirt, and khaki pants, he was frightening at the least. The kid could've taken on an X5 or two, that was for sure.

"Hello," greeted Piotr impassively but politely.

"Max, Alec, this is Piotr Rasputin, a student at my school. He will be accompanying you," explained Xavier with a proud smile. "He's a very capable boy, and will prove most helpful."

"We get a helper? That's new," commented Alec, shaking Piotr's hand and wincing slightly. "The boy's got an iron grip."

"You have no idea," replied Piotr ominously.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Max as she shook his hand as well.

Piotr looked at Xavier, who nodded. The teen grinned at Alec and said calmly, "Hit me right here." He patted his stomach.

"What? You're kidding, right?" Alec raised an eyebrow. "This some kind of trick?"

"You'll have to see," replied the young mutant.

"If you insist…" Alec pulled back his fist, tensed his muscles, and took a deep breath. He could feel Max's body stiffen with worry.

"Hit me!" insisted Piotr.

So Alec did, and without holding back. His knuckles struck what should've been stomach muscles, but instead hit what felt like steel. He looked down. It _was_ steel.

Max gasped in surprise, her hand going to her mouth. Where a colossal, built teenager had just stood, there was now a steel statue of the same size. Then the statue moved, its head cocking to the side. She blinked, then noticed Alec's shuddering hand. "Alec? Are you alright? What the hell is going on?"

"Piotr is also known as Colossus. He has a unique talent of his own," said Xavier, his wry amusement showing through his tone.

Alec let out a high-pitched squeak and cradled his smashed hand. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. He leapt backward in astonishment as Piotr changed back to regular ol' flesh and blood. His attention was torn between his throbbing, broken hand, and his amazement with Piotr. "Let's go and plan this out," Alec squeaked again.

* * *

They retreated to Alec's apartment, where Piotr raided the fridge while Max fixed up Alec's hand and went over their mission. The target was a Congresswoman by the name of Claire McDaniel. She was being targeted by Magneto and his gang (Xavier had called them 'The Brotherhood') because of her covert involvement in some anti-mutant government operations (the whole situation seemed kinda iffy to Alec, but he went along because Max did… and the nine hundred grand promised by Xavier…). All evidence presented to them by Xavier pointed to the hit going down that evening (the short notice was rather irritating, but nine hundred grand…), at an uppity dinner party.

"Great," muttered Alec. "That means I gotta swipe a tux." His eyes flickered over Max as she wrapped some gauze around his crushed hand—all five of his fingers were broken, and there was intense bruising on his knuckles. "Got a dress?"

Max casually swatted him on the head and went back to what she was doing. "I have one, but I've worn it before."

"Oh yeah? Where?" prodded the male transgenic, smirking.

"A wedding."

"Who's wedding?"

"Why are you pressing this?"

"Why are you sidestepping this?"

"Ugh!" Max threw a roll of tape at him.

"Answer."

The female transgenic let out a breath, her hair rustling in response, and muttered, "Cale family wedding."

Alec grew still. "So… you went with Logan?"

"Yeah."

"Mhmm." He stroked his chin with his good hand as Max finished up with his bad one. "Well then you definitely need a new one."

Max laughed and raised her eyes to meet his. "What, out with the old, in with the new?"

Alec shrugged, his trademark smirk settling on his handsome face. "Why do you put it like that?"

"I dunno." The young woman completed his makeshift cast, her tiny hands turning his larger one over to inspect it. Someone had once told her that looking at a person's hands could reveal a lot about their life. While wrapping his crushed hand, she had taken notice of his calluses on the underside of his hand—reminiscent of most X5s who handled guns regularly—and the softness of the rest of his skin, which was strange. If she had to make a prediction from this, she would guess… Though at first he might seem rough or jaded, he was really a soft, kind man. She paused.

Naaah…

"Okay, ready?" he asked, standing.

"One thing." Max also rose.

Alec looked like a deer in headlights. Their faces were about five inches away; close enough to kiss… if he didn't have that nagging suspicion that she would knock him flat on his skinny ass. "What?"

"Try not to play overprotective asshole, okay? I can fend for myself."

The male transgenic's balloon of apprehension deflated with a squeak. "Yes, sir." He saluted, and for his efforts received a hard smack on his bad hand. "Ah, ah, ah!"

* * *

After making a quit stop by Versace (the major clothing line having survived the Pulse without so much as skipping a beat), the two transgenics and their mutant bulletproof bodyguard stopped by Max's apartment to change into their new (and very, _very_ expensive, yet free) duds.

It took Alec a whopping thirty minutes to get dressed, his hair tousled like always, but with a dash of gel to hold it there. He paced back and forth in the living room, periodically checking his watch while Piotr looked on. In fact, now that he was thinking about it, the kid's intense gaze was damn annoying. The transgenic stopped and looked at the boy closely. "What are you staring at?"

Piotr muttered something suspiciously reminiscent of 'synthetigen' and answered, "You."

Alec clenched his jaw. "And… why?"

"You sure you're not married to her?"

This caught Alec off guard, and he nearly tripped over his own feet as he advanced on the kid. Piotr caught Alec's shoulder in one huge hand and pushed the older man back like a rag doll, sending the male transgenic wheeling backwards and over Max's couch. Alec's head then popped up over the back of the couch, his eyes narrowed to indignant slits. "That's not fair," he muttered.

Piotr smiled amusedly. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Do you love her or what?"

Alec frowned, then his ears perked as he heard Max's bedroom door opening. _Saved!_ he thought to himself, looking towards the door. His jaw dropped with an audible creak, eyes bugging out of his head at the sight of the vixen standing in the door. She had obviously taken over Max's body and refused to give it back. He was torn between thanking the new inhabitant and asking to have Max back.

"Does Original Cindy know what she's doing, or does Original Cindy know what she's doing," said OC proudly, standing behind Max.

"You're catching flies," teased Max, tossing her purse at him.

The Coach handbag smacked him right in the face, and Alec came out of his eccentric fantasy. Max was wearing a little black dress that was classy yet sexy with its low cut and flowing train. A maroon sash was tied around her supple waist, clasped with a simple silver buckle. Her feet, usually clad in edge Nike Shox, were now barely supported in a pair of sleek Stiletto heels. That couldn't be safe. Her long, dark locks, which usually hung loose about her shoulders, were done up into an elegant French twist. Alec's eyes settled on her face. She didn't look much different than usual, except for the silver tint of her upper lids and the darker tone of her lipstick… but she was suddenly drop dead _gorgeous_.

Piotr whistled appreciatively, and Alec felt himself involuntarily bristle at the competition presented by this mutant. He placed his body between Max and Piotr, suddenly noticing Max's purse on the ground. Kneeling to pick it up, he felt a horrifying urge to kiss her feet. He looked up, and something more terrible than he could ever imagine struck him in the chest… _he was kneeling in front of Max Guevara, in a tuxedo, with the potentially suicidal urge to propose!_

Alec jumped to his feet, hurled the purse at Piotr, and skidded out the door with an over-the-shoulder-yell of, "Let's go!"

* * *

Scoping out the place from their "borrowed" Bentley, Alec said to Max, "Whaddya think?"

"They got security as tight as a Sector Chief's ass," she replied from the backseat. Piotr was driving. "How is this naked blue lady going to get in, again?"

Piotr let out a breath of annoyance. "Mystique. Her name is Mystique." He gunned the engine, the car darting into the darkness toward the party parking lot (since the Pulse, valets had become less reliable). "We told you, she's a shape shifter. She could become anyone she wants… even one of you."

Alec grinned mischievously. "So… how do we know that _you_ are not _her_?"

"She can't imitate powers," explained Piotr, accentuating his point by turning his hands to steel around the wheel.

"Noted," commented Max, sitting back and checking her hair. As Piotr pulled into an empty space, she threw the door open and successfully got out of the tiny, low-riding sports car without showing her panties to the world. "Let's go."

They very calmly jumped the back fence (after thoroughly ensuring themselves that there were no cameras or people to watch), with Alec and Piotr being slapped into gentlemanly turning their backs as Max leapt a fence with her dress flapping in the wind.

Upon entering the building in which the party was actually taking place, Max and Alec were assaulted by scents. Pheromones, alcohol, sweat, old people—you name it. Where transgenics weren't exactly bloodhounds, they were very aware of pheromones and the distinct smell of an individual. Xavier had told them that Mystique had a very, _very_ high level of pheromones, and her smell was distinctive from that of an Ordinary's. In other words—you'll know it when you smell it.

"There she is," said Piotr into his mouthpiece, which was attached to his back tooth like something out of _Charlie's Angels_.

Alec and Max followed his gaze to a woman in her mid-to-late fifties, with graying blonde hair and a too-wide smile. The transgenics immediately put an association with her oddly colored dress, which was bluish greenish… purplish? Well, it was weird to say the least.

"Okay, we've got a mark on the suspected target. Piotr, you stick near her. Max and I are going to scope the perimeter. If we give you the signal, get her out of here. Got it?" instructed Alec. "Max, hear that?" When where was no response, he glanced over to see Max being wooed by three young, attractive, _rich_ men. They looked kinda like Logan. "Max!"

The young woman visibly tensed, her smile losing its sincerity, and she excused herself from the conversation. The three beaus shamelessly watched her as she returned to Alec's side, then shied away at the sight of Piotr next to him.

Alec grabbed Max's arm and pulled her away. "Max, a little concentration please?"

She sighed and nodded. "Right. Concentration."

"I'm going to go upstairs. You check out things down here," instructed Alec.

"Fine," snapped Max before disappearing into the folds of rich people.

The male transgenic sniffed and headed toward the stairs.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Max had accepted entirely too many drinks from rich young men, Piotr was getting bored, and Alec was being stalked by an old woman intent on hooking him up with her daughter—still no sign of the perp. Alec was getting annoyed; this was a wild naked blue goose chase. He leaned against the balcony overlooking the downstairs level, his tie loosened and his top two buttons undone. Max was again out of sight amid the young, ambitious comers, and he was getting tired of asking Piotr to intervene before a prince with a fast white horse carried her away.

But then, out of nowhere, Max was standing next to him. He jumped in surprise and moved several feet away. "Hey! I told you to wait downstairs!"

"I know, but I got bored." She leaned forward, her ample cleavage suddenly very, very visible. "So… whatcha doin?"

Alec gulped. "You drunk, Max?"

"Maybe," she replied. "Come here." Grabbing his hand, she led him out a set of doors onto a dark balcony. "Just a second." She flipped a switch, turning on the lights. "There. Now we can see what we're doing."

"Uh huh."

The female transgenic extended her hand, smiling warmly. "Dance?"

Hesitantly, Alec accepted the invitation. The music, classical, was faded and drowned by the roar of hundreds of conversations going on at once, but they still danced. Waltzing back and forth, Max's dress flowing, arms intimately wrapped around each other.

Alec was in heaven.

"I… I don't know what to say, Max. You've never been this… forward before," he whispered. "I like it."

Max gave him a crooked smile. "Well, I've never seen this side of you, either. All gentlemanlike."

Leaning forward, Alec grinned smugly and sniffed at the air. "That's because you're not Max."

All of a sudden, "Max's" eyes shifted yellow, and then her skin literally turned over, revealing rough blue scales and angry red hair. She punched him in the face before he could recover from the shock, then kicked out his feet from under him and leapt of the balcony. "Perp moving toward back entrance," Alec reported. "Piotr, intercept."

"I'm a little busy," came the crackled reply from the teen, followed by a loud crash.

Leaping to his feet, Alec ran back into the building and searched the crowd for the fight. It wasn't hard to find, however, because Piotr went flying out of a group of people and into a wall. A man then emerged, dressed in a brown trench coat, black shirt, and brown pants. He was _huge_, taller than Piotr, and much hairier. The huge mutant smiled an evil little smile, baring extra-long fangs. Joshua-esque.

"I'm guessing that'd be Sabertooth," muttered Alec, drawing his weapon. He shot once, striking Sabertooth in the shoulder. The mutant barely flinched, but spared Alec a passing glance as he continued his assault on Piotr.

Before Alec could shoot again, something grabbed his gun out of his hand. He looked over and saw a young man with green-tinted skin and huge warts on his face. "Oh shit," said the transgenic before the mutant's tongue whipped out, knocking him off the balcony.

Alec struck the floor with his shoulders, hearing the sickening crack of something snapping, and lay there for a moment. The rest of the battle was a blur to him, though he was aware of the sounds of Piotr in battle. Where was Max? He tried to look around, but all he saw was the blurred forms of terrified partygoers as they rushed out the door. That asshole toad boy was nowhere to been seen, nor the naked blue lady.

Eventually, things died down. SWAT burst through the front door, practically ignoring him as they went by. And then, an angel appeared above him, bathed in heavenly light. She was wearing the same dress as Max, except her hair was falling down about her gorgeous, worried eyes, and she was _glowing_ for heaven's sake.

"Max?"

Then, the helicopter light moved, changing the angel back into regular ol' Max. She knelt next to him, her small hands settled on his forehead. "Alec? Are you okay?"

"Fabulous," he replied with a cough.

"Sh… don't move," said the female transgenic.

"What if you… you're not her…?"

Max smiled and locked his eyes with hers. "You saying you can't tell between me and some fake bitch?"

Alec laughed, then began coughing. "Oh, oh… don't do that, Max. It hurts." He took a deep breath. "What happened?"

"Perps got spooked and ran out, but only after Piotr kicked Joshua's evil twin's ass and I got to trade punches with a frog. We saved the target," explained Max quietly. She brushed a few strands of sweaty hair from his eyes. "Dr. Carr is on his way."

"I went through all that trouble just to get knocked flat on my ass," moaned Alec miserably. "What was the point of this? We supposed to learn something?"

"Look at it this way… we get nine hundred grand."

"Enough said."

"I thought so."

They grinned at each other.

"So… How'd you know that bitch was impersonating me?" asked Max nonchalantly.

"Smelled funny. And she hard to turn on the light to see," replied Alec with a crooked grin. "Besides, she was all over me. You're never like that."

Max pursed her lips. "Yeah."

"Hey Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Never, ever again."

Max laughed and placed a light kiss on his forehead. "Whatever you say." A pause. "And Alec?"

"Yes, Max?"

"Sorry about complaining to you before… I think it's sweet that you're so protective of me." A toothy grin. "Thank you."

"Hey, if it gets me the lips of the great Max Guevara, I'm all for it. I mean, there's only so many paths we can take after you put my wiener in your mouth." He grinned rakishly, then received a punch to the shoulder. "OW! OW!"


End file.
